Chaos in a Page
by Maika Akarui
Summary: Mai finds a book on myth and folklore. Assuming it was a harmless picture book, she unknowingly releases some of the creatures described into various parts of the world. Now it's up to the SPR team to round them up and seal them back in the book.
1. Chapter I: Stories

**Disclaimer:** Ghost Hunt is not, and will never be, mine. It belongs to Fuyumi Ono. If it was mine, Mai and Naru would already be a couple by now. Ohohohoho! *head in the clouds*

**Warning: Some chapters may contain a few spoilers from the latter part of the manga and the novel. If you've only watched the anime and do not wish to be spoiled, turn back now.**

_Italics_ denote thoughts.

**Chaos in a Page Chapter One: Stories**

"In conclusion, the mysterious activity in your house was caused by your daughter, who has PK-ST. Apparently, she didn't like the idea of her parents leaving her for ten months a year," a blue-eyed boy of twenty spoke calmly to two distressed adults.

"We're sorry Hitomi, we promise to spend more time with you from now on," said one of them while hugging a small redhead girl. After clearing their base of operations, packing their equipment and receiving the client's gratitude, Shibuya Kazuya, a.k.a Naru - as the team would lovingly call him, and the rest of his companions headed back to headquarters . With this, another case has been closed for Naru's team of psychics.

Upon arriving at SPR's office complex, the whole team helped in returning the used equipment to storage and said their goodbyes soon after. After all, it had been a tiring case for them. Getting chased by flying objects and getting mauled by a large arsenal of stuffed animals caused by a little girl's tantrums had wore them down. Plus the hysterics caused by an image of their "Holy Ice Prince" getting surrounded by cute, fluffy bunny rabbits were too much for their stomachs to handle. Naru's mood lowered to the negative side of the scale ever since his unwanted trip to "Wonderland" and hasn't gone up so far. Once he reached the door to his office, he glared at everyone in the main room and told them to leave immediately, slamming the door behind him.

After waving goodbye to Takigawa and Ayako, Mai left the SPR Center and headed toward her apartment. It has been three years since her boss and her heart's desire returned to Japan and rehired her. Still, even though time has passed, everything pretty much stayed the same. They'd take cases here and there, encounter dangerous spirits, bump into weird ones, and so on. On idle days, she would just stay in the office with Lin and Naru, serving them tea. Just tea. Mai flinched as she remembered serving her tea-addicted boss one of those commercial carbonated tea drinks, which made the self-absorbed young man to gag and throw up in the bathroom for an hour. She sure got the brunt of Naru's anger as he scolded her and threatened to cut her pay.

The clicking sound of steel as the key to Mai's apartment turned echoed through the silent hallway. It was around ten in the evening and most of the people in the apartment complex were already settled down, if not asleep. Mai slumped on her couch and thought about how she would spend her day off tomorrow. After musing whether she would go to the office and see Naru or finish "Persona 4" on the PS2 Bou-san bought her for her 18th birthday, she saw her university notebook lying on top of the coffee table. She let out a long sigh. How could she have forgotten that she had research homework for one of her courses due two weeks from now? Even though it was summer break, the quest for learning goes on. Or so her professor said.

"To the library it is then," the already nineteen-year-old picked up the purple notebook and placed it on her study table. After taking a good long shower, she squirmed under the warm covers of her bed and drifted to sleep.

The warm summer sun shone brightly on the streets, illuminating the lines of houses and city greenery. Clad in a purple striped hoodie, a short denim skirt and a pair of blue chucks, Mai Taniyama readjusted the purple clip she placed on the right side of her short brown hair. Bouncing her small yellow backpack, she headed to the direction of the local library.

Somewhere along the way, she passed by a pastry shop and bumped into someone, who was no other than her narcissistic prince.

"Ohayou, Naru," she smiled sweetly, "Funny seeing you here."

"Hn. Can't I go out and eat cake once in a while?" Naru replied curtly. He obviously was still in a bad mood, but somehow managed to raise the mood gauge up a few notches. Mai gave him an amused look. She wanted to tease him about "Naru in Wonderland" but decided against it when he started to walk past her.

"Where are you off to? Isn't the office closed for today?" she walked alongside the young man. Naru ignored her and continued walking. Mai huffed and asked him again. This time, Naru glared at her and answered.

"I'm going to the library to read on some newspaper archives related to a case I'm interested in. When everyone else had gone out of the office, I received a call on poltergeists haunting an art museum. I haven't officially taken the case yet since I'd like to know more about it before accepting. The client will call me again a day or two from now."

"Looks like we're headed to the same place," Naru's assistant held firmly on the straps of her knapsack, "I've got research homework for my Social Science course," she continued.

"Well, well. Seems like you're finally interested in getting smarter huh? What a rare moment, " Naru sent her a smirk that got her wishing that she could control all the stuffed toys in the world to smother him. After all this time, this guy could still rile her up good.

"Rrr… So what if I am? Gah, you narcissistic jerk!" Mai huffed, speeding up her pace and leaving her snarky boss.

A voice inside Naru scolded him for the way he talked to Mai. _Great, you blew a chance to be with her outside of work_. Kazuya shrugged it off, his logical mind keeping any feelings of guilt at bay. He lost sight of her after a while and continued walking towards the same direction she went off to.

Mai entered the huge library and started to work on her research project. She saw Naru shuffling through old newspapers a few minutes later and decided to ignore the walking block of ice. She proceeded to find books for her own research and stalked off to the far corners of the library.

After a few hours, she decided to take a rest and left the library. She glanced over at Naru, who was still busy writing notes on his findings. She thought of asking him out to lunch but seeing how serious he was in what he was doing, she dismissed her desire to be with him. Upon exiting the large building, Mai entered a family restaurant nearby and ate her fill of lasagna. Ever since being a part-time investigator, she was able to afford a bit more expensive meals and didn't have to face the problem of going hungry because of her lack of money. As she sipped the last of her strawberry iced tea, her thoughts turned to Naru. Even if it had been three years since she admitted that she harbored love for Kazuya, she found herself having stronger feelings for the said dark-haired boy. Though she was initially confused whether she loved Noll or Gene, she finally realized that it was Noll's attitude and rare smiles that she fell in love with. She did like Gene's kindness but was more inclined to Noll's weird way of caring for her. Plus, there was never a dull moment with Oliver Davis around.

Mai paid her bill and went back to the library to continue her research. She surveyed the area to see if Naru was still working there, only to be disappointed by the lack of dark-bluish haired people in the scene. Taniyama let out a small sigh and went to a bookshelf on one of the corners of the rectangular-shaped building. Her eyes sped past a series of titles until they landed on one with a maroon spine and golden lettering.

"Creatures of Mythology and Folklore, huh?" she stretched out her arm to reach the book. She blew a bit of dust that settled on it and studied the cover. It was designed with rune-like writing, magic circles and jewel designs. A picture of a dragon, majestically breathing out flame, decorated the middle part of the front cover. Mai widened her eyes in interest and started flipping through the pages. She saw pictures of monsters and spirits with their respective descriptions. Some were familiar to her, some were entirely new. She scanned the pages and found that it covered almost every folklore and myth across the globe.

For a book containing a lot of information and pictures, it sure wasn't too heavy or thick. Along with the other books Mai needed for her research, "Creatures of Mythology and Folklore" was checked out from the library and sat snugly on the coffee table of Mai's apartment. Totally ignoring the other books, Mai took the maroon-colored book and read it. She read and read until she fell asleep, the book lying open on her lap.

Totally unaware of what might happen next.

つづく

**Author's Note: **

_**PK-ST: **_Psychokinesis on Stationary objects**  
**

**_Ohayou_ =** 'Good Morning' in Japanese**. **Usually used before 10am.**  
**

This is my first Ghost Hunt fanfic, and my third fanfic in this site. I had to do research on the manga and novel since I only watched the anime. I wasn't supposed to publish this yet since I haven't finished the whole story yet but I'd like to see how it would fare here. Publish dates for the next chapters would be irregular, but I'll try to update the next chapter as soon as I can.

I hope you liked the first part of this story. Reviews are welcome. Thanks so much! :D


	2. Chapter II: Release

**Disclaimer:** Ghost Hunt is not, and never will be, mine. It belongs to Fuyumi Ono. If it was mine, Naru would have already been wooing Mai in his very special Naru-like way. And the fun ensues. XD

**Author's Note:** Thanks to all of you who read and reviewed chapter one! I'm glad you liked it! I'll try my best to make this story fun and interesting for you guys. Stay tuned!

This will be a very short chapter. I was supposed to write more but I was so busy last weekend that my train of thought just stopped. *scratches head* I'll try to make the next chapter longer. I hope that you'll still like this chapter. Read and review please.

By the way, I enabled anonymous reviews so that readers who aren't logged in will be able to review the story. Thank you.

P.S. Today's my birthday, so I'll dedicate this chappie to me! XD

**Warning: Some chapters may contain a few spoilers from the latter part of the manga and the novel. If you've only watched the anime and do not wish to be spoiled, turn back now**

_Italics_ denote thoughts and dreams/ visions.

Chaos in a Page Chapter Two: Release

_"Mai, wake up."_

_A voice Mai knew too well resounded in her head. She surveyed the darkness of the realm of dreams and looked for the voice's owner. She walked a few paces forward, hoping to find someone in the path that led to nothingness. She paused on her 25th step, her right hand clenching her other in search for comfort. What - or who - was in front of her took her by surprise._

_"Gene?"_

_Naru's twin brother stood in front of her, his eyebrows furrowed with concern. Mai ran towards him and held his pale hand. Gene's face lightened up for a while as she squeezed his hand, but soon reverted to the worried expression he had before._

_"Mai, you need to wake up now. You and the rest of the world are in danger," Eugene Davis put a hand on the surprised girl's shoulder._

_"Huh? But it's been so long since I last saw you! I thought you have already moved on!" Mai shot him a pleading look. Gene shook his head in defeat and proceeded to answer her question._

_"I don't know. I myself don't understand why I haven't moved on yet. It's like something is keeping me here," the kinder version of Naru expressed his bewilderment, "But now's not the time for this Mai. You have to wake up and close that book you were reading!" he continued._

_"But - " Mai never got to finish her question as Gene grabbed her hand and swung her to a bright wormhole of light._

"GENE!"

Mai shot up from the couch she fell asleep on. Her chocolate-brown eyes were wide open and her breathing turned into panting as she scanned the dark room for the book. All of a sudden, crimson light started emanating from underneath her. As she bent to have a closer look, a red wave shot from it and blasted upward, sending her toppling to the area behind her couch. Mai rubbed her throbbing head as she struggled to recover quickly. She pushed herself from the floor and crawled near the couch. Her eyes widened in horror as the book she read before falling asleep emitted a fiery red aura and suddenly floated in mid-air. As the crimson light grew stronger, an eerie Latin chant filled her room while runes and ancient letters encircled the radius of the light field.

Mai tried to recompose herself and, with great effort, walked toward the now evil-looking tome. She quickly covered her ears as howls and screams of a thousand voices replaced the Latin chant. She resisted the force field that tried to push her away from the book and determinedly reached out to its glowing covers. She winced slightly as the cover lightly singed her hands. Despite that, she held on tightly and with all her strength closed the book shut. The crimson light dissipated and the voices stopped. She looked around and saw that none of her stuff were damaged or were moved from their original setting. She sunk to the floor, the book held firmly by her lightly burned hands.

The young woman closed her eyes, expecting her neighbors to knock and complain about all the noise. Surprisingly, nothing made sound on the door of her apartment. She inhaled sharply and let out a sigh. 

_What the hell was going on?_

She stared at the seemingly harmless book, which returned to the way it was before the horrible spectacle. Hesitating, she touched the sides of the cover and opened the book. She immediately jerked backward, expecting something to happen. Blinking a couple of times, Mai stared down at the pages of the book. It wasn't doing anything this time; no red light, no creepy ancient language. She turned a few more pages and opened her mouth in shock.

The pages were empty.


	3. Chapter III: Magic or Not?

**Disclaimer:** Ghost Hunt is not, and never will be, mine. It belongs to Fuyumi Ono. An excellent piece of work, I'd say. :D I want more Naru and Mai romance though. Haha!

**Author's Note:** Thanks to all of you who read and reviewed the previous chapters! I'm sorry if it took so long for me to upload the next chapter. School has started and I'm going to be pretty busy. I must put extra effort in my studies since I'm graduating college this semester. Yay! XD

I really tried hard to keep them all in character. I hope I succeeded. It's hard to write for Naru. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. Please read and review. I'd like to know what you think of this story. I hope I get more of your reviews next time. :D Maika over and out!

**Warning: Some chapters may contain a few spoilers from the latter part of the manga and the novel. If you've only watched the anime and do not wish to be spoiled, turn back now**

_Italics_ denote thoughts.

* * *

Chaos in a Page Chapter Three: Magic or Not?

"So that's what happened. Yep. That's all."

A flustered Mai Taniyama fidgeted with her skirt as she finished narrating the events that happened the night before. Everyone in the office remained silent and either focused their eyes on Mai or on the book that was sitting in the center table. The uncomfortable silence remained until a certain narcissist let out a sigh.

"Good job on aiding the destruction of the world, Mai. I'm sure everyone will thank you for it," Naru remarked with sarcasm.

"It's not like I did it on purpose, you jerk! I had no idea that this book was evil in the first place!" Mai angrily replied. Her fists were shaking in frustration and guilt. John looked at the girl with pity as she was fighting off the tears that stung her eyes.

"True, this book does not give off any malicious energy. Even I couldn't feel anything from it," the psychic medium sitting beside the priest suddenly spoke up. This defense by Hara Masako surprised the people in the room, especially Mai.

"What's this? You standing up for Mai? The world must've ended already!" Matsuzaki shook her head in disbelief, which earned her a glare from the spirit medium.

"I am merely stating the truth. That does not mean that I am, in any way, defending Taniyama-san," Masako covered part of her face with her kimono sleeve, "Do not make any hasty assumptions on my relationship with her."

The smile that formed in Mai's face after Hara's observation turned into a scowl upon hearing the last statement. So much for being friends. She turned to face Naru, who was eyeing "Creatures of Mythology and Folklore" with curiosity. She watched as he picked up the book and started leafing through the pages.

"Hmm, it seems that only some of the pages are blank. The descriptions are still written here. From the looks of it, only illustrations managed to vanish from their respective pages," he said.

"So how can missing illustrations destroy the world, Naru-bou?" the monk asked.

Naru furrowed his eyebrows as he thought of a possible explanation to the lost pictures. In a few seconds, a hypothesis surfaced from the Great Oliver Davis' logical mind. He closed the book and handed it to his taller assistant.

"A possibility is that this is a summoning book. Whoever has enough power to activate this book could summon the monsters described in this book as an aide in some sort of agenda - battles for example. Only a practitioner of sorcery could possess such a powerful object," Naru explained.

"Sorcery? Like magic and stuff?" Takigawa again asked the younger man.

"You could say that. Though the sorcery I am talking about is the imbuing of immense psychic power into an object to make it do a certain function. Depending on the type of function it should have, it could only take a few hours or even years to perfect the sorcery. I'd say it's sort of similar to software programming."

"Ah," Yasuhara commented, "Like when you code a web or desktop application for a specific platform? I can't imagine how you could do an error-check and fix bugs using psychic powers."

Mai felt like her nose would bleed any minute now from the discussion that they were having. She never really liked technical stuff, unless it was for a game she liked or so. _Remind me not to get a subject on Information Technology_, she thought. The girl looked around and saw that, thankfully, she wasn't the only one to get a near-bleed experience. Bou-san and Ayako both had puzzled expressions plastered on their faces.

"Well then, before we completely lose Mai in this conversation," Naru shot his assistant a knowing smirk before continuing, which caused a bit of steam to erupt from the victim of his narcissism, "let me tell you that our goal is to trace the source of this sorcery and render the book's functions useless. But first, I need you all to do some research on this. We do not know who or what we are up against. Though I can say that 'it' wields enormous power, considering that 'it' managed to mask the book's true nature."

His audience nodded in agreement and Naru proceeded to assign them tasks for the mission. Once everyone prepared to leave and do their delegated work, a small sob was heard in the direction of the brown-haired girl. Her bangs hid her face as she clenched her denim skirt tightly.

"I'm sorry," Mai whimpered, fighting back the tears that were already relentlessly cascading, "I didn't mean to… I didn't know... I was just interested in reading it, that's all… I'm sorry for putting you all in danger," she continued as she cupped her face with her palms, trying to catch the river that was flowing from her hazel eyes.

Upon hearing this, Takigawa, Ayako and John went to her side and tried to assure her that everything would be fine. Even the tall Chinese man stood behind her and gave her a light pat on the head. Expecting that she would incur everyone's wrath with what she did, Mai was proved wrong when she felt the warmth of the people around her and cried louder in the arms of Ayako and Takigawa. _We're really one big family huh? They still love me even though I screwed up big time. Thank you Kami-sama… _she thought as her sobs grew quieter.

"You should be sorry. Now stop moping like a child. It's not going to do anything to atone for what you have caused."

Mai lifted her head to see who had spoken. She was expecting a comment like this to come from the kimono-clad girl but found her boss instead in the direction of the voice. He was giving her a disappointed look, his arms crossed and his eyes cold as steel. Mai noticed new tears forming as he later entered his office, not caring if she made another ruckus with her bawling.

"Naru, you!" Ayako shouted as Naru closed his door, "Don't worry about that jerk, Mai. Remember that we're all here for you." she then tried to comfort the once again crying girl.

"I admit, he was rather harsh," Masako finally approached the group, "You didn't deserve that."

"C'mon Mai, I'll treat you to a strawberry custard ice cream crepe, whaddaya say?" the monk took Mai's hand and led her to the exit, "Is everyone coming too?"

"Yeah, as long as it's your treat Takigawa-kun!" Yasuhara, feigning girly sweetness, held onto Bou-san's free arm.

"Ewww! Get away from me glasses-boy!" Bou-san jerked his arm free from his attacker.

"Let's try our best to cheer Mai-san up!" the blonde priest said as he tagged along, with the miko and the spirit medium following close behind him.

"Lin-san, are you coming?" Mai asked as she tried to stifle her sobs. Lin shook his head and told them to go have fun while he watches over the criminal behind Mai's sadness. When everyone had left, he knocked on Kazuya Shibuya's office door and went in once the man behind the door gave him permission to.

"What is it, Lin?" Naru asked him.

Lin paused for a while. He planned on asking Naru why the latter made such an unkind comment to his assistant of three years but deemed it better not to go through with it. Naru must have had a hard time trying to find words to comfort someone precious like Mai.

In truth, Naru's heart wrenched upon seeing the girl cry. Taniyama Mai had been very special to him and ever since his brother's death, he had forgotten to show people how much he cared for them. He wanted to comfort her but he didn't know how to. He even wanted to hug her but it was hard for him to just drop the stoic image that he had been accustomed to. He couldn't show her that he too had a soft side. So there he went, completely doing the opposite of what he wanted to do, and that had hurt her even more.

"What do you suppose Taniyama-san did to unleash the power of the book? She doesn't seem to be someone who would be involved in sorcery," Lin broke the young man out of his thoughts.

Naru closed his eyes and contemplated on the subject at hand. He too was wondering how Mai managed to activate the book in her sleep. Knowing her, she wouldn't be able to handle such high-level magic. Unless…

"She might have more psychic power than we thought. But she doesn't know how to control it yet, or most likely not aware that she possesses such power. From what I could deduce from the missing illustrations, her powers are only enough to release some of the creatures described in the book. If I was the one who touched it when its magic activated, I might have released everything inside it," Naru told his tall assistant.

"So what do we do about this bewitched book?" Lin asked.

Naru reached for a piece of office paper and started writing something. "I'd like you to take this letter to the library where Mai borrowed the book and ask them to hand it over to us. If they want compensation, we'd gladly give them the amount they want. This book is dangerous. It is surprising how it ended up in that library," he said while he signed the letter and gave it to Lin.

Lin bowed and exited the room. Naru stared outside the window, his eyes resting on the indigo sky that floated above the bustling city streets. His thoughts turned to Mai. Was she still crying? Would she talk to him again? Naru frowned as he pushed away the annoying girl from his mind. He should be concentrating on finding a way to return the monsters inside the book. But how would he do that? _It's annoying when you don't know where to start,_ he thought.

The door flew open and a distressed Lin came rushing inside the office. "Noll, the book!"

"What happened?" Kazuya rose from his seat, a concerned look in his usually expressionless face. Lin led him to the common room and pointed at the object on top of the table.

"It's glowing."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

_Miko - _shrine maiden

_Kami –_ God

_Bou-san_ – Monk-san (-san being an honorific)

_Naru-bou_ – it's the same as saying "Naru-boy". "Bou" (坊) can be read as 'boy'.

I got the title of this chapter from a kid's book by Eager I read before. It's about a magic wishing well.

Oh, and that stuff about sorcery in relation to psychic powers was something I just made up. Let's just go with the flow shall we? (^_^)

Please read and review! Thank you!


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